The rise of beauty supplements in the US, in charts

The US saw a 61% increase of sales in beauty-positioned supplements this past year—the largest growth among countries with the top seven highest sales in the category.

Data came from market research firm Euromonitor International​​, which reported that the US posted $144 million in sales of beauty supplements compared to $89 million last year.

This year, the US made it to the top five of countries for sales, beating Germany and France which have had stronger sales than the US in the past few years​​. (Scroll below to see graphs of beauty supplement sales performance around the world).

In the past, the beauty supplement category has been pegged perpetually as not quite ready for prime time in the US, which has the biggest dietary supplement market in the world but lags behind smaller markets like Japan, Italy, and France for supplements with this positioning.

Looking at new product launches, data from another market research company, Mintel​​, revealed that beauty enhancing claims for ‘anti-aging’ made up 4% of all supplement new product launches, functional ‘hair, skin, and nails’ claims made up 12% of all launches, and 3% of launches made both claims.

“I want to stress that although its few in number, the US recorded an increase of VMS products launched with both beauty enhancing claims over the last few years,”​ David Tyrrell, global skincare analyst, said at a recent webinar hosted by NutraIngredients-USA​​ on the topic.

A global look at beauty supplement product launches​

Using Mintel’s Global New Product Database, Tyrrell said that in global vitamin and mineral supplement product launches, those that claim beauty benefits remain niche, at about 5% of all launches over the last year.

North America recorded about 6%, Asia Pacific recorded the highest percentage at 7%, Europe, Middle East and Africa about 4%, and Latin America trailed with just 2%.

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Looking at countries, “Japan topped the list with 20% of all beauty-positioned supplement launches. The UK came in second at 11%, South Korea at 8%, and the US at 7%,”​ Tyrrell said.

Thanks to collagen?​

Driving the category’s growing strength in the US, many analysts credit it to the increased use of collagen peptide in finished products, an animal-derived protein that has been studied for its skin health benefits​​.

At the Natural Products Expo West show early this year, analysts noted the abundance of collagen-containing products, from powders to cookies to tortilla wraps​​.

From the show, Euromonitor dubbed it “2018’s hottest ingredient” and Google Trends data revealed that searches for ‘collagen’ in the US as at an all-time high​​.

Data from Dutch market research firm Innova Market Insights​​ revealed that dietary supplements is the largest category globally for product launches containing collagen.

The beauty supplement market in charts

CORRECTION:​​​These numbers were updated on 9/28/18. The original version of this article used an older version of Euromonitor International's 2017 figures and did not combine figures for Hong Kong and China for the 2018 sales numbers.